I began youth ministry my freshman year of college and realized that I should use my athletic gifts as a way to connect with students and share the gospel. After graduating college, I was searching for a new athletic outlet. My students encouraged me to try out for American Ninja Warrior.”
His first appearance in 2014 was one for the memory books as he had an unforgettable fall. The network showed a flashback of the fall during his latest appearance on the show. He competed again in 2015, when his family moved to Grandview for him to serve as youth pastor at First Baptist Church.
“ In that church, there’ s a lot of men who do construction, and they’ re just super supportive of me doing the show,” he said.
Website: obstacleministry. com Instagram: jaredG4Christ Facebook: Overcoming Obstacles Ministries Youtube: youtube. com / jaredgreer
It became a fun father and son project to work on together, as his 14-year-old helped shoot and edit his submission videos for the show. They just submitted his video for next year’ s show.
In years he didn’ t compete, he served as a course tester, so he’ s been involved in some form in fashion every year since 2014.
Greer launched Overcoming Obstacles in 2016. The nonprofit puts a unique twist on ministry, allowing people of all ages to try different obstacle courses, with Biblical lessons sprinkled in.
“ The events vary as we have different courses of different sizes,” he said.“ People show up, they can start playing and then we press pause, demonstrate the obstacles in a fun way, pick kids to demonstrate and hype it up. Then we’ ll press pause again and share about somebody’ s interest and experiences of being on‘ American Ninja Warrior.’
“ But then we talk about the biggest obstacle being sin, and that we can never overcome that on our own, so that Jesus came and lived the life we could never live, die to death we deserved to die and rose from the dead. We just encourage people to turn from their past and to trust in Jesus.”
They have done over 500 events in the last 10 years, serving over 200,000 people on the courses.
“ It’ s been incredible,” Greer said.“ And we’ ve been able to help over 4,000 people receive Christ.”
After the first event for the youth group, his fellow church members helped with creating the obstacles.
He resigned as youth pastor in 2018 to go full-time with the Overcoming Obstacles ministry.
“ Overcoming Obstacles Ministry is a one-of-a-kind, interactive outreach experience,” said Rick Eubanks with National Network of Youth Ministries.“ It’ s all about building relationships, sharing lots of smiles and laughs, and ultimately, presenting the gospel. People recognize the show and the names from‘ American Ninja Warrior’— and this is their chance to try out some of the course challenges themselves or enjoy watching others take them on.
“ Everyone has a great time at these events. Jared and his team do an incredible job of encouraging people of all ages to face and overcome life’ s challenges, all while clearly sharing a message of hope. If you’ re looking for an interactive, relevant, and fun way to engage your group, Overcoming Obstacles Ministry is one of the best opportunities out there.”
The courses have grown, the team has expanded and so many people have been impacted. However, the mission hasn’ t changed. They exist to encourage and inspire people to overcome the obstacles they face.
“ We just love the Grandview community, and we love small towns,” Greer said.“ Just knowing that I can travel literally around the nation, and we can just show up in our church and know that we have a church family and we’ re supported. We have a home group that we can just do day to day life with. We love being able to contribute to the community, but also just how everybody supports us.”
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